


Red Like the Devil and Hot Like the Fire

by khalifaziz



Category: DC Comics, DC Elseworlds, Green Lantern (Comics), Red Lanterns (Comics)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Historical, Black Character(s), Blood and Violence, Elseworlds, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Mentioned Green Lantern Corps, Racism, Red Lanterns (DCU), Slavery, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khalifaziz/pseuds/khalifaziz
Summary: Years before Alan Scott or Hal Jordan, another ring of power from another Lantern Corps made it's way to Earth. This ring was first worn by the human Kevin Wilkinson, but was stolen from him by John Wilkins, the Negro sharecropper that farms on the land Wilkinson's family has owned for years.Note: Rape mentioned and alluded to repeatedly; central part of the story. It is NOT described in detail. The other violence is, however.





	Red Like the Devil and Hot Like the Fire

Mae walked warily into the barn. She’d heard a ruckuss coming from it a few moments before and she wasn’t about to have any thieves on her farm. Stuck in one shoulder was her trusty twin barrel, one of the things her good Samuel left her before he went on to Glory. Mae stomped her grounds with the confidence of a woman that knew she wasn’t about to have no trouble with thieves, they were going to have trouble with her.  
When Mae reached the barn door opening, she stopped and inspected the scene. The door was swinging open and the lock was lying on the ground. Curiously enough, it didn’t look broken to her. Either the intruder was an expert lock-picker or they had a key. Course, she didn’t believe that her good friend John Wilkins was coming round her farm, trying to abscond with her hard-earned crop and livestock. Had to be an expert thief.  
Mae peered around the door opening looking for signs of trouble. Inside was what she’d expected: her single cow, some piles of hay, and a wall of tools. The man lying in the stack of hay was the only unexpected sight.  
Mae made a big show of cocking her gun as she stepped into the barn. The “chick-chak” of the gun loading echoed around the quiet barn, causing the intruder to suddenly jerk his body all around the bale of hay.  
“Now that’s enough, mister! I got a two shells of lead pointed right at you. Think on that before you make a single move.”  
“Mae! It’s me!”  
Mae took a few steps closer so she could get a better look at the man. But really, she didn’t have to. Mae immediately recognized the voice of the man that was Junior’s godfather and her lifelong best friend.  
“John! What on earth are you doing in my barn!”  
In the faint moonlight, John hardly looked like himself. Mae had grown accustomed to seeing him as a strong, confident man. But what stood before her was more like the little boy that she used to push into the creek. His entire body was drenched in enough blood and sweat to make him almost glow in the dark. His tired eyes looked up to her with pleading mercy, but they didn’t focus on her face. John’s left hand was trembling something frightful, a tick she only saw when he got nervous. Whatever it was, John Wilkins had been going straight through it that night.  
“Now don’t tell me Ethel caught you messing with them girls out at Barton’s Bar!” Mae laughed as she lowered her gun.  
“No, I--” Johns response was slow, unfocused. He was having a difficult time finding his wits about him, and that made Mae worry. She relaxed once his face soured and he raised an angry finger to the air. “Now I ain’t never been unfaithful to my wife, Mae!”  
Mae laughed, “Shoot, way the women around here look at you, I wouldn’t judge Ethel for giving you a good smack around just to keep out your mind that you could.”  
“Mae, listen! There ain’t time for foolin now. Have you been to town at all today?”  
Mae shook her head, “No, but I sent Junior out and you know that boy still hasn’t come back? I need you to talk to him before I-”  
“Mae! Look, I got something I need to tell you, its important. There’s men looking for me, Mae. White and colored alike!”  
The news shocked Mae. To think there were men after sweet as pie Johnny Wilkins? Impossible. He was a good man that never did anything to anyone. Didn’t get into any fights, didn’t chase no one’s women, and while he enjoyed the occasional drink and game of cards, it had never gotten him into trouble before. Who would be after a man like him?  
“I killed a man, Mae. I killed and robbed Kevin Wilkinson, and now everyone’s after me. The law, bounty hunters, and now…strangers, Kevin’s friends. They want to kill me and the girls.”  
Mae should have expected him to say that. For many years she would find herself saying “Kevin Wilkinson is going to wind up dead one day,” then at other points saying, “I wouldn’t judge John Wilkins at all if he killed Kevin Wilkinson, and I’d go as far to say the Lord shouldn’t judge him neither!” Both had finally come to pass, and she couldn’t help but feel partly responsible.  
“I been speaking evil in the world and now evil’s visited you,” Mae lamented.  
John shook his head, “Now don’t you start now, Mae. Your words don’t affect my actions in no way. You ask me, you were trying to warn me about this and like a damn fool, I didn’t listen. Or maybe I shouldn’t have listened sooner. Maybe if I’d killed him years ago, we wouldn’t be in this mess we are now.”  
Truth is, John Wilkins had been thinking evil towards Kevin Wilkinson for years. He didn’t necessarily want to kill the man, but he had made silent hopes, secret even to himself, for the ruin of Kevin and all his family. It only seemed right after everything Wilkinson’s family had put his own through. Take John’s great-grandaddy, Paul. He was born the illegitimate son of one of Kevin’s grandfathers, William, after he’d raped Paul’s mother, a field slave named Virginia. Everyone on the plantation knew who Paul’s real father was, so William’s wife, Sarah took out every frustration she ever had on Virginia. She burned her, scarred her, accused her of stealing, and let the overseers do whatever they wanted to both her and Paul. Virginia couldn’t take it, and she wound up passing on when Paul was only thirteen. John’s family suffered separations, rape, and torture under the hands of the Wilkinson’s for years, and when Emancipation occurred they didn’t even have the name to show for all they’d suffered. When Kevin Wilkinson found out that John’s daddy was going around calling himself Wilkinson, he threw a fit, beat his daddy to the ground, and declared that there was no way a nigger would claim kinship to his own blood.  
“What were you going to do? Kill the man and take the land you share on? You aren’t Nat Turner and there ain’t no sense in trying to be!” Mae scolded.  
“I wasn’t trying to take no land from Wilkins!” John boomed. If he were more sober of mind he wouldn’t have shouted, because he knew how Mae’s cruel father had damaged her soul to the point that she couldn’t bear to hear an angry man. But his emotions were too high, he couldn’t control himself.  
“John,” Mae said, with concern and nervousness in her eyes, “calm down, now. I already said, I don’t judge you for-”  
“Kevin Wilkinson needed to die! I was out in the fields, working the same land my family worked for generations, and all of a sudden I heard screams. Screams, Mae! Coming from my house! I ran inside and I saw Kevin Wilkinson on top of my daughter! I didn’t even think, I just took the sickle in my hand and I started hitting him and hitting him!”  
Mae stared up in terrified awe at her friend. He didn’t seem to realize it, but with every word he spoke, his body glowed a brighter and brighter shade of crimson as his body slowly began to rise. His eyes were still tired and unfocused, yet filled with a rage that Mae had never seen in him before. They even glowed with the same red light that enveloped his body. John looked even less like himself than he had before. He looked like an angry, avenging angel ready to cast judgement on the cruel, sinful world below.  
“John!”  
Something about how Mae called out to him in that moment reached John’s soul. The awareness returned to his face as he looked down, as surprised as Mae was at the sudden transformation. Before he could say anything, the light disappeared, and he crashed right on top of the pile of hay again.  
“What on earth was that!” Mae screamed. She found herself raising her gun but forced that part of her down. John was her best friend, there was no way that he’d ever hurt her.  
John reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out a small, red ring. A shocked expression remained on his face as he raised the ring up to show Mae.  
“I’ve seen that before,” Mae said.  
John nodded, “Remember when Kevin went on that trip to Mexico and disappeared? We all thought he’d gone down with the boat before he came back a few months later.”  
Mae shook her head, “I remember that. I was ready to throw the biggest party when I heard the news. Then I heard he was back.”  
John pointed down at the ring, “And when he came back, he was wearing this! This ring right here. I asked him about it once, and he said that I wouldn’t understand, that I wasn’t enough to even begin to understand.”  
“Enough?” Mae asked.  
“That’s all he said. Not smart enough, not man enough, not rich enough. He just said ‘enough’. Like I’m not even enough of a living thing to understand.”  
“And you stole this ring?”  
John nodded, “My plan was to sell it. After I killed Kevin, I put Ethel in the car with the girls and then went into Kevin’s house, looking for all the money and valuables I could find so we could run away. First thing I grabbed was this. I never seen a metal like this, so red and so smooth and pure. I figure it’s gotta be worth something to someone. And it was only later that I found out just how valuable it is.”  
“Mae, this ring right here? It’s got power. Ethel-Mae used to joke that Kevin got it in Mexico off some Indian witch-doctor. Now I think maybe it’s not a joke.”  
“Give it here, I want to see it,” Mae said.  
John shook his head, “No. Whatever power this is, it’s evil. I didn’t tell Ethel and the girls this, but I can hear it. I can hear it in my soul. It’s happy that I killed Kevin, it wants me to kill again. I slipped that ring on my finger for just a second and I could feel all the anger and evil in me explode. The ring said that I was worthy, worthy of all the hate and anger in the whole universe. No, Mae. I will not let you hold it, I don’t want to cause you more trouble than I already have.”  
“But how do you know that you’re causing me trouble,” Mae asked. “I haven’t heard a word about you killing Kevin, so maybe word hasn’t reached town yet. Where’s Ethel and the girls? You can stay the night here and I’ll help you get away in the morning.”  
John shook his head again, “I’m not a stupid man, Mae. I sent Ethel, Ethel-Mae, and Suzzette off on their own.”  
“Now why on earth would you do that! A woman driving your truck unguarded? They’re going to get her thinking it’s you!”  
“No, they won’t. Least, not the men I’m most scared of. Remember how I said Kevin’s friends were after me?”  
It took Mae a second to think of what he meant, “You don’t mean...”  
“Yes. I was already driving down the road, half-way to Jackson when my truck was stopped by a man wearing one of these rings. Well, he looked like a man for the most part, but there were horns growing out of his face. Not just his head, they were coming out of his cheeks and chin too. His body was wrapped in strange, red and black clothes that hugged his entire body. Fire came out of his mouth when he spoke and-”  
“He talked? What did he say?”  
“He told me that his ring told him that I’d killed one of his friends. He said Kevin Wilkinson was a solider, and a life form as small as me had no right to kill a Red Lantern.”  
“You don’t,” a new voice said. The voice was unfamiliar to Mae, but John recognized it immediately. With a gasp, he whipped his head around looking for the source.  
There was a thunderous boom and the sound of breaking wood. The animals in the barn woke up and began to call out in fear and surprise. Mae raised her gun again, aiming for a bright, red glow that was moving towards her and John. But John knew that it wouldn’t be enough to protect her, not against a monster like that.  
John stepped out in front of Mae’s gun and raised his hands in the air. He was well aware that his body wouldn’t be enough to stop the fury of the glowing man, but he was sure going to try appealing to his sense of sanity and dignity at least. John knew that Kevin Wilkinson wasn’t any kind of man, but perhaps his comrade could recognize the simple, honorable fact that you shouldn’t attack a woman that isn’t any threat to you.  
“Please, stop!” John called out. His voice turned up and cracked at the end, the first time it’d done so since he was a boy pretending to be a man. John was scared and as much was obvious to everyone, but he wasn’t going to turn tail and run and let his fear get the better of him, not while his best friend was in the charging path.  
Something about John reached that glowing man. He stopped dead in his tracks, then levitated himself over John and Mae’s heads. His eyes narrowed, his mouth formed a smile, and a sound like boiling oil made its way through his throat, and John quickly realized that the magical, flying, fire-breathing red man was laughing at him.  
“Oh Earthling, you do indeed make my belly rumble. The gall of you to think your mere mortal life could defend your friend from me, and of your friend to assume her projectile weapon could pose a threat to the awesome might of a Red Lantern ring. I love it.”  
“Sir,” John said, using the same tone he would have used if it was a white man he spoke to. The thing clearly wasn’t human, but the way he carried himself and talked to them told John exactly how he should deal with him. “Your quarrel is with me, sir. I hid here without my friend knowing, and she’d only discovered me shortly before you arrived. She’s no part of this.”  
The Red Lantern looked down at Mae, who’s gun was lowered but still solidly in her hands. She stared back up at him with a bright fury that made the Lantern laugh again.  
“Pathetic! You’re a male, are you not! How, then, does the woman have more rage than you? How did your hate best that of Kevin Wilkinson?”  
Unsure how to respond, John stayed silent.  
“And now you hold your tongue like a coward. Pitiful. You are not worthy of that ring, and I will take it off your corpse!”  
John reached into his pocket and pulled the ring back out. “Take the ring! I don’t want it. I only took it because I thought my family could use it to—it doesn’t matter. It’s yours, take it.”  
The Red Lantern’s face soured, “How dare you? Do you mean to deceive me? Me!”  
Mae shouted out to the Lantern, “What in God’s name is that ring? Why do you want it? Who are you? This would be much easier for all of us if you’d just explain what’s going on!”  
The Lantern thought for a second, “Yes, I suppose your primitive species would need a further explanation. The science of the Power Rings is still secret to your people, even though this whole sector knows by now.”  
The Red Lantern’s glow lost some of its intensity as his body lowered just a bit. John and Mae knew better than to assume this meant it was safe to drop their guards, however. The look in his eyes told them all that even in that state, they wouldn’t stand a chance against him.  
“I am Sakarriel, second son of Mordrem of the K’Thakar Tribe. In three centuries, my people will lead a holy conquest in this solar system, only to be driven away from this planet and it’s sun by your Earth heroes. I will die in that battle with a rage and hatred so strong in my soul that the power of the Red Lantern will seek me out.”  
“And what is the Red Lantern,” John asked.  
The Lantern raised a fist, then slammed it to his chest. A crack of thunder shot through the air as the symbol on his chest began to glow.  
“The Red Lantern Corps is a brotherhood of noble warriors, pledged to destroy our nemesis, the Green Lanterns and their Guardians of Oa. When a being dies with intense hatred in their heart, it is deemed worthy of the power of the Red Lantern. The Power Ring seeks out that being, bonds with it, and grants the being new life and power for as long as that being is consumed by their hate and rage and anger. Upon bonding with their ring, a Red Lantern loses all sense of self and becomes nothing but the fire that burns deep within their veins.”  
Sakarriel smiled, “Or, at least, that’s how it used to be. The Corps has grown stronger over time, and surpassed the limitations once placed upon us. Now, we can speak and think without being consumed by our anger. Our leaders acquired the power of time travel so we may recruit more members from all throughout time. And as you have demonstrated, our rings have apparently transcended their limitation of only seeking out the dead and dying. Truly we are a far mightier Lantern Corps than we have ever been!”  
Mae glanced nervously at John. If she hadn’t seen the foreign man standing—floating right in front of them, she would have reasoned that he was speaking nonsense. But she knew it had to be true. This horrifying demon truly was the soldier of some evil army of another world.  
“So he was your teammate, like a brother yeah?” John asked. He took a careful step towards the glowing man with his hands raised to show he wasn’t a threat. “I understand why you would be upset then. But please understand, what he did-”  
“I don’t care,” Sakarriel said, “I don’t care at all that Kevin Wilkinson was killed. He was a pathetic ant. I came here seeking the mighty warrior who bested him, but instead I found you! Your very attachment to the ring is an insult to all we hold dear!”  
“I said I don’t even want it,” John pleaded.  
“What is bound cannot be unbound,” Mae whispered to herself, finally realizing the truth.  
“The female understands better than you. There are only two ways to remove a ring of power from the one it has bound itself to. I do not believe at all that you are worthy, but the fact remains that the ring seems to believe you are. All that is left is for me to steal the ring the same way you stole it from Kevin Wilkinson!”  
Sakarriel’s body immediately began to burn brighter than it had before. John and Mae were helpless as he shot forward and collided with their still bodies before they could even react. The contact between their human flesh and his energized figure created a shockwave in the air that blew hay and dust around the barn’s interior. Both Mae and John sailed through the air, landing randomly on the dirty floor.  
Sakarriel didn’t waste time with Mae. He flew right up to John and lassoed him with his ring’s power. The energy of Keven’s ring tickled John’s flesh with an exciting, ravenous warmth that touched every cell in his body. A completely different sensation filled him as he felt the searing fire of Sakarriel’s red energy coiling around him. John let out a cry as the sensation of boiling hot venom poured into his skin, but Sakarriel wasn’t swayed by his cries of agony.  
“How pitiful,” the alien commented as he flew himself and John straight through the roof of Mae’s barn. The cool, night wind chewed both their faces, but only John’s eyes began to pour with tears. Sakarriel shook his head at John and his display of weakness.  
“There is no strength within you. There is nothing within you!”  
Sakarriel pushed a wave of energy through his ring, firing John’s body straight to the ground below. The man flopped about like the toy of a petulant child, then hit the ground in a crazy roll. John came to know the earth in a series of blows that cracked his bones and bloodied his insides. His chest struggled to get air in, then struggled more when the same burning gripped his throat and pressed into his windpipe.  
“That is why you remain bound, working the lands your fathers died on.” Sakarriel threw John to the ground again. Before he could count the painful clicks in the back of his head, John felt his body smashed with the powerful weight of solid light. Air forced its way from his mouth, but only the gurgling of blood and spit and mucus rang out.  
“That weakness is what allowed your daughter’s body to be conquered by Kyle Wilkinson!”  
Sakarriel smashed another of his light constructs onto John’s body. John felt his chest cave in as shards of bone stabbed his lungs. Tears continued to roll down his face, only now they burned with an acidic boiling of Sakarriel’s ring energy. Either due to physical or spiritual damage, each word the alien monster spoke rang through his ears.  
“That weakness is why this ring will never be yours!”  
Sakarriel shot a torrent of energy blasts into John’s body, each growing hotter and denser than the last. John felt his muscles and organs cry out even as his voice could not. His hands began to tighten and his fingers to curl into themselves, hoping desperately to cushion the shocks of Sakarriel’s attacks. His mind only knew pain. His curling fingers began to dig their ways into the grass. He heard Sakarriel’s words repeat and grow louder with each blast the Red Lantern delivered. His fingers penetrated the topsoil and continued to go deeper into the ground below. John felt a tear open in his booming heart. His mind began to slow. John’s pain began to fade, and he found himself drifting to sleep. His fingers continued to push into the earth with the last sparks of life left within his body. Finally, just as the tip of his middle left finger reached the clay layer below, Sakarriel’s echoes began to fade into the growing nothingness of John’s mind.  
An explosion of red light made the sound of a thousand thunder strikes. The shockwave sent dirt flying and made hundred year-old trees in the distance crash to the earth. Sakarriel’s entire body shook with the vibrations of the blast as he desperately shielded his eyes from the brilliant light and cutting debris. A feeling started small in his mind then radiated until it filled his entire body. It wasn’t anxiety, it wasn’t excitement, nor was it a marriage of the two; it was a new feeling defined by the uncertainty of what laid in store for Sakarriel. The human, Sakarriel knew, had just truly proven his worth to the ring.  
John stood before Sakarriel, still not himself but also not the man Mae encountered in her barn. His face was tightened in a frown yet his eyes remained wide. Veins bulged and throbbed under tight, contracted skin. A mysterious growl boomed from the back of John’s throat as the air around him crackled with heat. Like Sakarriel, John’s body was wrapped in a red and black skin suit that bent to every curve of his body, and that suit itself was wrapped in an intense, red light.  
Sakarriel sneered, “Is this the part where you give me one last warning to leave peacefully?”  
John’s response was a single clap of his hands. A second, destructive wave of red energy radiated through the air around them, but this one was different. It was stronger and denser and more controlled than the last. Sakarriel could instantly see how dangerous just standing in place would be. He willed his ring’s light to condense and form a tight barrier around him, but it wasn’t enough. John’s rage slammed through the barrier Sakarriel created and sent the monster flying.  
As the monster spun and flipped through the air, he cursed himself for being so weak. A new fire of self-loathing burned within his mind, and he directed the flames outward to the ring. Another blast of energy, one more powerful than he’d used since arriving on this pitiful planet, would be more than enough to fry the human, with or without a ring.  
Before Sakarriel could aim his ring and fire, his skin began to burn and cry out in anguish. So sudden was the blow that he couldn’t muster the composure to keep his cries in. An intense heat radiated down upon him, flooring the alien instantly. He suffered under John’s life-given rage as the angry Negro man continued bearing down on him.  
“You attacked my family! We’d done nothing to you and you just attacked us! Was it even worth it, Sakarriel? Was this stupid ring really worth dying over?”  
Sakarriel roared and shook the earth with his rage. A beam of energy far more powerful than John’s shot from his entire body. In one moment, Sakarriel dispelled all the power his ring had remaining and directed it at John. The blast overtook the man’s attack immediately and John felt a heat more powerful than that he managed to fire. He crashed to the ground in a smoldering heap, and Sakarriel limped towards him.  
“The ring is not stupid. And I am not the one that’s going to die today, human.”  
Sakarriel cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms. It had been ages since he killed someone with his bare hands, and he was feeling rusty.  
“You fought well and your rage is strong, that I will say to you. But you are still an Earth man acting on your own. And I am an agent of the greatest celestial military in these galaxies. Take pride in knowing that your death came at the hand of a true Red Lantern.”  
The sound of a thundercrack rang through the air as John’s sight filled with the color red. But there was no energy blast warming his skin. Blood washed over his face and John felt an odd comfort from the warmth. Was it because it was all over, that his family was safe? Was it because he’d grown to hate Sakarriel during their fight? Or was it because he just enjoyed the idea of death and destruction? A different, morally superior version of John would have asked those questions.  
Mae walked closer to John, still holding her gun at the ready. Confusing a death convulsion for the alien’s stirring, she fired off another shot into his carcass, then nervously struggled to reload. John reached a tired hand at her, but could only manage to reach her ankle. It was enough. Mae dropped the gun to the ground below, kneeled before her oldest friend, and sobbed.  
“The ring,” John muttered.  
“What?”  
“The ring. It healed me, it can heal him. You gotta take his ring.”  
Mae awkwardly inched over to the alien’s body, heart in the back of her throat. She didn’t let her fear make her waste time, however. With a closed, disgusted eye, she grabbed the alien’s hand, plucked the ring from his central finger, then ran back over to her friend.  
“This ain’t over yet, John,” she said as she tucked one arm under his and helped raise him to his feet.  
“I know, Mae. I know. I just need a night, Mae. Can you give me that before I go?”  
Mae shook her head, “You can’t stay here, John.”  
John sighed, “I understand. I’ll be on my way, then.”  
“No, John. I mean that you can’t stay here while your family needs you. I’m not sure how, but I’m going to get you back to Ethel and the girls.”

Epilogue

Ethel was completely out of her element as she tended to John, and as much was apparent to everyone in the room. She didn’t know what to do with the world or the strange and horrible things it threw at her. And she definitely didn’t know what to do with John. It seemed that as soon as Ethel set her sights on an injury—be it a bruise or cut or burn—it would begin to heal itself before she could even grab whatever tools and remedies she had set aside to treat it. Any other day and she’d think it was prof of the Lord’s power, but she knew better. Wilkinson and that strange monster didn’t have any power that came from God, they couldn’t have.  
“You think he gon’ be alright, Ethel?” Mae asked.  
Ethel shook her head yes, then shook it no, “His wounds heal, that much is clear. But on the inside? For the long term? I’m not sure what’s gonna happen. We’d need either a doctor or conjure man to be sure.”  
“We won’t get neither if we stay here,” John said. He rose from the rickety, wooden chair and struggled against his wife’s gentle attempt to hold him down. “It won’t be long until someone finds out about this place. We gotta get into the next state at least.”  
“You need your rest, John.” Mae reminded him.  
“Ethel said it herself, the ring’s healing my body well enough. Your Uncle Mason was good to let us use this place, Ethel, now we gotta be good to him and run before someone tracks us here and we get him in trouble.”  
“The girls need their rest too, John,” Ethel reminded him.  
Mae nodded, “I agree. We all know you’re a big, strong, man, John-”  
“That’s not what this is about,” John cut in.  
Mae continued, “But your girls aren’t. They’ve been through a lot today, you gotta give them some time to recover. Just give them today, and start running again once the sun starts to set.”  
John didn’t agree, but he couldn’t disagree. He shook his head and took a step away from both Mae and Ethel. The man kept his back turned to them for a while, then muttered some words about needing to get out in the air. John took a step outside the cabin and stayed there for some minutes. Ethel and Mae stood awkwardly, silent to each other for perhaps the first time in their lives. After some time, Ethel shot Mae an apologetic look, then left to join her husband outside.  
Mae sighed, then took a deep breath and sighed again. She wanted to pray for Ethel, John, and the girls, but their problems were so large that she wasn’t sure what words to use. Her teeth ground against themselves in discomfort as she sat in the house. It’s small, shady, and silent rooms only echoed her discomfort and anxiety.  
Then the room wasn’t as silent. The door at the furthest end opened and out popped young Ethel-Mae Wilkins. Mae was taken aback when she saw the girl. For years Mae had watched her grow as if she were her own daughter and saw how she grew and grew into a young woman as strong as her daddy and as proud as her second-namesake. But young Ethel-Mae did not, could not walk out of the bedroom with the same, proud strides she so often employed when she needed to cross from one point to another. Her knees buckled and rattled with every bended step. Her back arched in a gangly posture as if she was hiding from the world. Even her eyes, usually wide and curious drooped with the sadness of a woman far older than she actually was. The horrors that child had seen had kicked her straight from seventeen to fifty-three.  
“Auntie Mae?” The child said as she stumbled her way into the main room—the only other room—of the cabin.  
Mae rushed older and grabbed her niece into her arms, “I’m here, child. I’m here.”  
The girl cried for some time, but her voice didn’t reveal that. Mae could tell from the way her body shook and the soft gasps and sighs that managed to force their way through the iron will that prevented Ethel-Mae from screaming the pain away. Mae felt a warmth flutter in the pit of her body, and she forced it outward with every fiber of her being, hoping whatever light was left inside her could offer Ethel-Mae some comfort.  
Thoroughly out of tears and ready to talk, Ethel-Mae let go of her auntie and took the same seat her father had just abandoned.  
“You want me to cook something for you?” Mae asked, offering the best comfort she knew.  
Ethel-Mae shook her head no, “I’d just fed myself and Suzette when ya’ll arrived.”  
“Your momma told me you were both asleep then.”  
Ethel-Mae shook her head again, “We tried. Lord knows we tried. But we couldn’t manage it. I sat up with her for a minute and…she didn’t want to talk and I didn’t have much to say neither. I gave her some biscuits momma left in the room and eventually she fell asleep.”  
Mae nodded, though she wasn’t quite sure why. It just felt right in its own way, she supposed it was reassuring. “Real good of you to think of your sister despite everything that’s happening weighing on your mind.”  
Ethel-Mae shrugged, “I gotta. Momma spent so much time tryna heal her wounds. I couldn’t make her sit up with her, too.”  
Before Mae could ask what she meant, John and Ethel walked back into the room. John walked towards Ethel-Mae, and Mae took a few steps back to give them some room. Just like before, Ethel-Mae hugged her father silently, but didn’t cry that time.  
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” John said between tears.  
“It’s not your fault daddy,” Ethel-Mae said.  
“I reacted without thinking and ruined everything.”  
Ethel-Mae was going to say something else, but before she could, another, smaller voice cut her off with an exclamation of, “Daddy?”  
Ethel-Mae realized he had to be with Suzette now more than he had to be with her. She let her father go, but he didn’t walk into the room. Ethel took his arm and gave him a look. Meaning passed between the two without words, and in a moment, the two were walking towards the other room.  
From the main room, Mae and Ethel-Mae watched as the parents slowly opened the bedroom door and went in to see their daughter. Mae craned her neck to get a better look at her, but she didn’t dare go inside. The moment was private, and she knew to respect that. But before Ethel finally shut the door, Mae managed to see the young Suzette. Her innocent, five-year-old face lit up at the sight of her father. Arms stretched out, the girl nearly jumped in the bed, ready to embrace John, who leaned over to meet his daughter’s hug. The door shut soon after that, and all Mae could hear was the muffled sound of John’s tears going, “I’m sorry, baby-girl, I’m sorry.”  
Mae didn’t turn to Ethel-Mae. Her face and body remained oriented towards the shut bedroom door. Without turning—without blinking or even breathing—she asked Ethel-Mae, “Why is Suzette all bruised up?”  
Ethel-Mae began to speak, but Mae didn’t really hear. Her insides were too hot, and there was something else distracting her. A noise she could only almost hear, yet she knew intimately what it was saying, what it was coercing. Mae’s soul grew hotter.  
“Auntie Mae!” Ethel-Mae said, her voice just barely a scream.  
Mae’s head snapped back to reality and she turned to face her niece. The young woman was further back than she was before and her aged, weary eyes were frightfully wide as she pointed to Mae’s balled-up hand.  
Mae held her hand towards her face, burned and blinded by the hot, red light emanating from it. Unable to help herself, she laughed.  
“It’s just a ring, child.” Mae said as she opened her hand. She wasn’t surprised to see the red, alien ring sitting in the palm of her hand. It felt hotter than the skillet that her dad….it was hotter than anything she could ever remember but it didn’t burn her or cause pain. The burning felt nice and calming.  
“It’s just Sak—” Mae stopped herself. What she was about to say wasn’t true anymore, and she knew it. She didn’t want to lie to her niece, and she especially didn’t want to lie to herself. How did the ring get there? She was sure she left it…no, she didn’t leave it. She pulled it off Sakarriel’s hand and she never let it go. And why should she?  
“No,” Mae said, “It’s my ring. You know, your daddy has one just like it.”  
Ethel-Mae nodded, but she didn’t really understand. “What does that mean?”  
Mae slipped the ring onto her finger and felt the red light surround her body. Her clothes tightened around her in an almost indecent way, but she didn’t mind. Her once blue dress turned black and red, with a white symbol in the middle. Her eyes and mouth burned with hellfire as her muscles tightened. With each breath she took, the air felt fuller, more nourishing and more powerful. She thought, briefly, to her childhood baptism and the new strength and life she gained after being reborn in the creek. The newer feeling was far greater.  
“It means, Ethel-Mae, that your father and I are worthy.”  
Ethel-Mae screamed. She fell to her rear and began to crawl backwards as she shouted, “You look just like that thing! You’re one of them!”  
Mae shook her head, “No, baby, no. The legacy that we are worthy of is far greater than that of the Red Lanterns.”


End file.
